Pointlessly elaborate interchanges

[Roadsguy]

...there is no entrance ramp either from Paxton to Northbound I-83, the opposite way of this travel.

None direct, but if you go over Paxton EB to Eisenhower Blvd. and turn north (where it debatably turns into a freeway), you feed right into 83 NB.

[national highway 1]

The 'bump' between I-76 and I-80 near Youngstown, OH.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

The 'bump' between I-76 and I-80 near Youngstown, OH.

A double trumpet interchange between a toll road and a freeway is pointlessly elaborate?

[Alps]

The 'bump' between I-76 and I-80 near Youngstown, OH.

A double trumpet interchange between a toll road and a freeway is pointlessly elaborate?

A simple roundabout would do.

[national highway 1]

The 'bump' between I-76 and I-80 near Youngstown, OH.

A double trumpet interchange between a toll road and a freeway is pointlessly elaborate?

A simple roundabout would do.

Or a stack.

[ibagli]

Wouldn't toll booth placement on a stack be pointlessly elaborate?

[Scott5114]

This thread is getting pointlessly elaborate

[Mr_Northside]

The 'bump' between I-76 and I-80 near Youngstown, OH.

A double trumpet interchange between a toll road and a freeway is pointlessly elaborate?

Actually, that interchange now has (and has had for years) a connection to a nearby county route as well (To/From the Turnpike only), which makes the interchange a good bit more elaborate.  How "pointless" it is is completely up to one's opinion.

[vtk]

The 'bump' between I-76 and I-80 near Youngstown, OH.

A double trumpet interchange between a toll road and a freeway is pointlessly elaborate?

Maybe he meant my version of it in the Redesigning Interchanges thread.

[JustDrive]

Any interchange along 101 or 280 in the city of SF, with the exception of maybe the 1/280 split in Daly City.

[US81]

SR 23 and SR 118 in Moorpark.

I live in California and still had to google this. OK, it's a joke (?), but map links are always appreciated.

According to the map, each exits on/off the freeway. So if someone were not paying attention, he or she would be driving along on one SR and suddenly find himself/herself on the other.  Not a problem for road geeks of course, but the average driver - who would probably only be looking for an exit if he expected to change routes - must have fits...

[kurumi]

SR 23 and SR 118 in Moorpark.

I live in California and still had to google this. OK, it's a joke (?), but map links are always appreciated.

According to the map, each exits on/off the freeway. So if someone were not paying attention, he or she would be driving along on one SR and suddenly find himself/herself on the other.  Not a problem for road geeks of course, but the average driver - who would probably only be looking for an exit if he expected to change routes - must have fits...

But you can't get lost if you follow the signs

[mightyace]

I-476, I-81 and US 6/11 in Pennsylvania

That's not really elaborate, but just a goofball design. If you want elaborate, go a few exits down 81, though that's all-freeway.

I was never on the 81/84/380/6 interchange until it was rebuilt, but it looks like drastic steps were taken to keep I-81 as the through route. I wonder what the traffic counts are here, and if most traffic heading north on I-81 continues east on I-84?

It would be hard to say without traffic counts what the overall numbers are.  All I can say is personally, I've only done I-81 North to I-84 east once in my life and the same for I-81 north to US 6 east once, the other umpteen-hundred times I've been through on 81 north, I've been staying on 81 north.

To be fair, even when living in PA, I never traveled much to the north or east through Scranton, it was always a destination city.

As for I-476, I-81 and US 6/11, most of us know that's an artifact of 81 going to New York state instead of the Turnpike as originally planned.

[Roadsguy]

Wouldn't toll booth placement on a stack be pointlessly elaborate?

Or do what they're doing at 95 in (the other side of) PA, as well as to give a connection to 79: put a high-speed toll booth west of the interchange, and make the bump a stack.

[mightyace]

^^^

Of course, that would involve taking the Ohio Turnpike east of the interchange off the ticket system and either free or barrier tolls.

The one upside to all electronic tolling is that you can place the gantries almost anywhere and use more conventional interchanges places like here or in Burns Harbor, IN when I-80 leaves the Indiana toll road and joins I-94.

[Bickendan]

SR 23 and SR 118 in Moorpark.

I live in California and still had to google this. OK, it's a joke (?), but map links are always appreciated.

According to the map, each exits on/off the freeway. So if someone were not paying attention, he or she would be driving along on one SR and suddenly find himself/herself on the other.  Not a problem for road geeks of course, but the average driver - who would probably only be looking for an exit if he expected to change routes - must have fits...

But you can't get lost if you follow the signs

Now why would I do that? My GPS is never wrong!

[golden eagle]

I-55/MS 463 at Madison, because it has bricks in the design. The mayor there insists on everything in Madison be built in brick.

[kj3400]

MD 32 at Denington Lane. Not so much pointlessly elaborate as just pointless.

[flowmotion]

MD 32 at Denington Lane. Not so much pointlessly elaborate as just pointless.

That's a bizarre one --- never seen anything like that before.

[NE2]

It's an exit for NSA employees only, so maybe they want to give accidental exiters a second chance. Of course the roundabout also prevents an at-grade crossing of the two ramps. And the median was already wide: http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=39.10083,-76.76929&z=17&t=O

[kphoger]

Of course the roundabout also prevents an at-grade crossing of the two ramps. And the median was already wide

That's the main thing, IMO.  No need to acquire land for a trumpet interchange when that little nugget would suffice.

[agentsteel53]

It's an exit for NSA employees only, so maybe they want to give accidental exiters a second chance.

I once got off at the exit to Camp Pendleton on I-5.  the guard just told me how to turn around most effectively.  I would imagine the NSA would be able to hide the Sooper Sekrit stuff well away from the guard shack.

[mgk920]

That is an odd-looking sign symbol on the left.



Also, from what I could gather from the aerial images of the area, the really juicy parts of the NSA grounds have two more checkpoints to pass after the main guard shack.



Mike

[Henry]

The College Park Interchange, where I-95 and I-495 meet. It would've made sense had the southward extension of I-95 into Washington been built, but we'll never know now.

[kj3400]

It's an exit for NSA employees only, so maybe they want to give accidental exiters a second chance. Of course the roundabout also prevents an at-grade crossing of the two ramps. And the median was already wide: http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=39.10083,-76.76929&z=17&t=O

-image-

I just think it would be less pointless if there were more than one road or one pair of slips connected to the roundabout.